Thursday, July 30, 2009

Blessedly Brief Button Blog! -- A "Theme Thursday" Post

The prototype touch-tone telephone pictured above sold on eBay for almost $18,000 less than a year ago! You probably figure that I've included it here because today's Theme Thursday subject is "BUTTON," and touch-tone telephones have buttons, right?

Wrong.

I'm showing it to acknowledge the fact that today's post is pretty much "phoned in," due to all-too-pressing concerns in the real world.

So now that I've wasted your time for a bit, allow me to showcase the real subject of today's brief post:

My first three cars (purchased & owned circa 1973-1976) were made by the Chrysler Corporation. My very first automobile was a tan 1964 Plymouth Belvedere. My second car was a maroon 1964 Dodge Polara 440. The third was a blue 1964 Plymouth Fury, like the one shown above. (A '64 Fury was basically a '64 Belvedere with fancier chrome).

That second car, the Dodge, was bought from a "motorhead" co-worker who had pulled out the stock 318 engine and replaced it with a 361. He'd also installed a three-speed manual transmission. But before he'd done that, my little Dodge had had what the two Plymouths had...

And that was a pushbutton transmission.

I've been feeling rather nostalgic about my early Plymouths -- I even immortalized the pushbutton tranny in several parts of a recent multi-part story -- and would like to own either a 1964 Belvedere or a 1964 Fury again sometime in the relatively near future.

So. If you made it this far, and would like to know more about these cars, you can start by clicking here!

When Mom was first able to(LEGALLY)drive, she got to test out her neighbour's new '64 Chrysler( I forget the model but probably an Imperial ). Push-button all the way! And I despised column shifters, still do!

How amazing, from different continents we have both approached the theme in similar ways : those old semi-automatic push-button cars must have left a big impression. I like yours, it looks much better than the old Renault.

When I was a kid we had a Plymouth Valiant with push-button transmission. My Dad hated it, and soon enough it was gotten rid of and replaced with the same car but with standard transmission. Are there any push-buttons still on the road?

@Alan: Best thing about them was the reaction you'd get from passengers.

@Candie: We all want different things. But I'd definitely want women to ride in the car with me...

@Jayne: Believe it or not, I don't recall encountering the term "three-on-the-tree" before, although its meaning is immediately apparent.

@Willow: Pics of me? If and when I get the car, I'd really have to give that one some thought.

@Baino: "Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel?" Sounds like someone hasn't totally gotten over my "Doors" post of a few weeks back.

@Leah: They were cool, weren't they? Like I wrote to Alan, it was their uniqueness more than their functionality.

@Jinksy: Not sure. In the USA we're probably more used to the similar phrase "button your lip" (which pre-dates the mimed act of "zippering" your mouth shut), and that goes back at least 70-80 years.

@Wings: See? You young'uns can still learn from us old-timers! ;-)

@Roy: There are, thanks to classic car buffs. I'm not very mechanical, so I can only imagine the problems in maintaining a pushbutton tranny (getting parts, etc.) nowadays, though!

@Brian: Cute. You're forgiven. ;-) My Mom's going to hit 92 in October -- and I have no reason to believe that she won't -- so everything she goes through is taken pretty seriously by those around her. And recently things were more than a bit scary, but she's showing real improvement.

Love the old cars...really sharp! The push button transmission...now that is something I've never seen before. Although in Nascar, the cars are started with a button instead of a key. That's as close as I get!

I had a 68 Dodge Dart that my father gave me. It was quite peppy, but it sort of floated all over the road. I got pulled over by the cops once because they thought I was drunk. I finally sold it to a friend whose father admired it.

After Mal and I got married, we somehow ended up with a 1964 Plymouth Belvedere with the push-button transmission...truly a terrible car. Oddly, Chrysler still has crappy transmissions. We bought a brand-new 1990 Dodge Caravan...needed a new transmission at 27,000 miles. Luckily it was still covered under the warranty. Poor design.

I Was Chosen BLOG OF THE MONTH ~ November 2011

I Won "The Goddess Award!"

Unfortunately, the "Everyday Goddess" site is no longer available, but here is the post that won the award for me!

What to Expect from This Blog, and from Me:

The Lair of the Silver Fox will contain anything I want it to contain. Sometimes I'll just ramble about my varied interests. Other times, if and when my muse cooperates, I may present you with stories, both fictional and non-fictional. (And just because something is supposedly "true," it doesn't mean that it's 100% true! You've been warned!) Some will be serialized in chapter form, while others will be one-part, stand-alone stories. Occasionally, there will be personal anecdotes, able to be called "stories" in a very loose sense. I may discuss unfinished or unpublished projects. Now and then, there will be articles containing opinions, or information, or anything else I want them to contain, and that includes occasional, somewhat feisty David'Z RantZ entries, which will be prominently labeled as such. I also have an occasional feature called Comical Wednesday! I am prone to writing tribute posts when prominent (or obscure) celebrities die. There might even be poems or songs. I will post items that have been published elsewhere, operating under the assumption that if you haven't seen it here, you haven't seen it at all.

The Lair of the Silver Fox will not always be what you expect it to be, or even -- sometimes -- what you want to see. But then again, if it were, it'd be your blog, and not mine, right?